Drilon urges DFA to cancel passport of alleged drug queen

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to immediately cancel the passport of alleged “drug queen” Guia Gomez Castro.

Drilon said Castro can be considered a fugitive from justice.

“It appears that Mrs. Castro does not intend to return to the country and face the warrants of arrest issued against her since 2002  for violation of Republic Act 6425 or the Dangerous Drugs Act. Hence, she is a fugitive from justice,” he said in a press statement.

Castro, former village chief of Barangay 484 Zone 48 in Manila, was confirmed to have left the country last September 21 on board a Cebu Pacific flight for Bangkok, Thailand.

Drilon said that under Republic Act 8239 or the Philippine Passport Act, the foreign affairs secretary is authorized to cancel a passport “in the interest of national security” or when the holder of the passport is a fugitive from justice.

He said well-settled jurisprudence defines fugitive from justice as a person, who, having committed a crime, flees from jurisdiction of the court where crime was committed, departs from his usual place of abode and conceals himself and is found within territory of another.

He added based on jurisprudence, conviction is not a requirement to consider a person as a fugitive from justice, saying that filing of charges prior to flight is not always an antecedent requirement to label one a "fugitive from justice."

He further said the jurisprudence clarifies that mere commission of a crime and subsequent flight  thereto sufficiently meets the definition of a fugitive.

“Hence, the DFA, to avoid miscarriage of justice and by virtue of the Philippine Passport Act, can validly and lawfully cancel her passport so we can restrict Castro’s movement, and summon her back to the country to face charges against her,” Drilon said. 

Castro earlier denied the allegations against her. — Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News